6 Things to Do in Phoenix Besides Hiking

You probably picture Phoenix as hiking boots and golf carts. Fair enough, but the city also hides a desert castle and a museum packed with antique fire engines. Then there’s a sandstone hill with a window worn clean through it. Give those surprises a little daylight, too.

Five of these stops cluster around Papago Park and the streets north of Sky Harbor Airport. The Musical Instrument Museum sits farther north and earns an outing of its own. Treat the list as a menu rather than six boxes to tick before dinner.

Tovrea Castle

Tovrea Castle rises above its cactus gardens like a tiered wedding cake, looking strikingly out of place in the desert. Alessio Carraro, an Italian immigrant, imagined it as the centerpiece hotel of a resort and residential development called Carraro Heights. The hotel was completed in 1930, but the resort never became the destination he intended. E. A. and Della Tovrea bought the property in 1931 and made it their home.

Many people know the castle only from the road. Seeing it up close takes a guided tour. The tour carries you through the cactus gardens by tram on the way to the main floor and basement. Regular tour tickets go through a lottery that gives winners the chance to purchase admission, and occasional cancellations appear separately. Confirm a tour time before you build your morning around it, because the grounds aren’t open for independent wandering.

Whether you’re driving or using a Phoenix car service, aim for the visitor center at 5025 East Van Buren Street. The operators warn that searching only for the castle’s name can send GPS users to Washington Street, where there is no entrance. Type in the street address instead, so you reach the right entrance when your guide expects you.

Hole-in-the-Rock at Papago Park

Papago Park’s rounded sandstone buttes have a smooth, sculpted look. At Hole-in-the-Rock, erosion has opened a broad window through the hillside, and you can climb up to look out of it. The short approach wraps around the back of the butte, where steps lead toward the opening and the city beyond.

Despite the similar name, this natural formation is quite different from Hole N’ The Rock in Utah, an unusual roadside home carved directly into sandstone near Moab.

The sandstone formed some 6 to 15 million years ago, and a nearly constant wind blows through its openings. The Hohokam, early inhabitants of the region, appear to have used the hill as a calendar. They tracked sunlight shining through an opening in the chamber’s ceiling to mark the equinoxes and solstices. A carved slick area in the rock marked those dates, and boulders marked other positions.

The trail is short, but the ground is uneven and unpaved. Wear shoes with good grip, and leave yourself time to come down before dark. Late light warms the stone and makes the view especially good, so expect company at sunset. Parking at the formation is free, but gated lots close earlier than the trail itself, so check the gate hours before an evening visit.

S’edav Va’aki Museum, Formerly Pueblo Grande

Near Sky Harbor, an ancient village survives inside the modern city. You may know the site as Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park, but it’s now called S’edav Va’aki Museum. Its exhibits connect the village, often described as Hohokam, with the O’Odham communities whose ancestors lived here.

The outdoor trail runs roughly two-thirds of a mile past the platform mound, reconstructed houses, and a demonstration garden. The village dates to about 500 AD and remained occupied for more than a thousand years. Its irrigation canals help explain how people supported life here long before modern Phoenix existed. Allow about ninety minutes and stay on the marked paths, because these are archaeological remains, not climbing structures.

Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting

Hall of Flame covers far more than fire trucks. Its six galleries draw on a collection of more than 130 wheeled pieces and over 10,000 smaller objects. Start in the earliest gallery, where hand-drawn and horse-drawn equipment from 1725 to 1890 appears alongside steam-powered engines and elaborate parade carriages.

American, English, French, and Japanese pieces show you how differently communities equipped themselves for the same emergency. Then spend time with the smaller objects, because the helmets, alarms, and firefighting tools add human context to the vehicles.

Musical Instrument Museum

North Phoenix’s Musical Instrument Museum fills five geographic galleries with instruments from cultures worldwide. Each gallery focuses on a major world region. Headphones supplied with admission connect automatically to exhibit videos, so you hear the instruments and watch people play them.

The Experience Gallery lets you play instead of only looking, with a changing array of instruments to try. The lineup has included a gong, a harp, and a theremin. Then head to the Artist Gallery for instruments and outfits from musicians such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Prince.

Desert Botanical Garden

Back among the Papago Buttes, Desert Botanical Garden puts the desert’s plants up close. The garden opened to the public in 1939 and now holds more than 50,000 plants. Its cactus and agave collections reveal shapes, textures, and growth that blur into the scenery from a passing car.

Five trails offer different ways to explore it. The Desert Discovery Trail forms the central loop, a paved path about a third of a mile long, passing saguaros and agaves. Most of the other trails branch off from it. The Plants and People of the Sonoran Desert Trail leads you into five different desert habitats. Along the way, you learn how Indigenous peoples used native plants for food, fiber, and shelter.

For a view, take the Sonoran Desert Nature Loop. It climbs to an overlook with views of the buttes and explains how desert plants and animals survive on very little water. The Center for Desert Living Trail shows herb and vegetable gardens plus ideas for landscaping a home with less water. Visit in spring for the Desert Wildflower Loop, which is known for its blooms. Whichever trail you pick, go slowly enough to read a few labels and notice how the plants differ.

Phoenix Rewards the Curious

Some places stick with you even when you can’t quite explain why, so leave room for that kind of discovery. You don’t have to see everything, and the afternoon you enjoy most may be the one that wandered off your plan. Choose the stop that sparks your curiosity and linger a little longer than you expected. Phoenix has plenty of ways to surprise you, and a second visit usually turns up something the first one missed.

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